Leader of the House of Lords

Written Questions: Government Responses

Lord Jopling: To ask the Leader of the House how many Questions for Written Answer were put to each Government department and answered within the target 10 working days in each month in the 2015–16 Session, together with the relevant percentages in each case.

Baroness Stowell of Beeston: In line with the practice established in the last session, following the commitment made by my predecessor (HL Deb 8 May 2014, col 1575), I will continue to publish annually the performance of departments on their promptness in dealing with Questions for Written Answer. My office will also continue to work with all departments to ensure prompt and comprehensive responses to all Questions for Written Answer. The statistics for the 2014-15 session are available as a Written Statement (HLWS39). I will shortly publish data on departmental performance for the 2015-16 session.

Select Committee Reports

Lord Sharkey: To ask the Leader of the House what was the average time in (1) the 2015–16 Session, and (2) each of the last five Sessions before that, between the publication of a select committee report and its being debated; and how many select committee reports published in the 2015–16 Session and the previous five Sessions were undebated (1) 12 months, and (2) six months, after publication.

Baroness Stowell of Beeston: My office does not hold the information requested. My Noble Friend the Government Chief Whip makes regular offers of time for debates on Select Committee reports to the Committee Office. The Committee Office then coordinate among Chairmen to determine which reports are debated on such occasions and in what order.Sixteen select committee reports were debated in the last session and debates on nine reports have been arranged thus far this session.

Department for International Development

Ethiopia: Floods

Lord Oates: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assistance they are providing to the government of Ethiopia in dealing with the displacement of people as a result of the recent flash flooding in southern Ethiopia.

Baroness Verma: Extensive spring rains have come at a time when Ethiopia is experiencing its worst drought in 30 years, which has already left 18 million people in urgent need of relief. Britain is scaling up its response to help the Government of Ethiopia provide lifesaving support to thousands of families in urgent need after severe flooding.Emergency humanitarian supplies – including 34,000 shelter kits, 60,000 blankets, 30,000 kitchen sets, clean water devices and other equipment – have begun arriving in Ethiopia to help 150,000 people in immediate need cope with the aftermath of intense flooding.The UK is already the second largest bilateral humanitarian donor in Ethiopia, and this new support, at around £3.5 million, brings our total funding to the current humanitarian response in Ethiopia to £145 million.

Ethiopia: Food Aid

Lord Oates: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what estimate they have made of the current gap in donor funding to tackle the food shortages in Ethiopia, and what steps they are taking to encourage other donor countries to meet their obligations.

Baroness Verma: Britain is working closely with the Government of Ethiopia and the international community to ensure adequate funding for drought response activities. Britain’s overall funding for the drought to date is £145 million, making the UK the second largest donor.In December, the Government of Ethiopia and the United Nations launched an appeal for 2016 to fundraise $1.4 billion (~£923 million) to respond to the drought in Ethiopia. By the beginning of May, 66% of the required funds had been raised.DFID is working closely with other donor governments to monitor the response and to lobby for support for the Government of Ethiopia and the UN appeal. Most recently, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Hurd discussed the current crisis with EU Commissioner Stylianides and in particular how to encourage others to step-up. DFID has also been working closely with the Ethiopian Government to support their leadership of the humanitarian response. To date, the Government of Ethiopia has allocated $381 million (~£269 million) to address the crisis. This is commendable.

Zimbabwe: International Assistance

Lord Oates: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether their representatives at the IMF and other international financial institutions will make clear that international financial assistance should not be made available to the government of Zimbabwe unless and until it enacts and implements the provisions of the constitution of Zimbabwe in full.

Baroness Verma: The UK continues to emphasise that any future financial assistance to Zimbabwe from the international financial institutions will need to be based on evidence of comprehensive reforms.We welcome the inclusion of the commitment to align legislation with the Constitution in the package of reforms being discussed with the IMF and the Government of Zimbabwe’s letter of intent to the International Monetary Fund Board.

Zimbabwe: International Assistance

Lord Oates: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the likely efficacy of international financial assistance to the government of Zimbabwe in the light of the decision by the Reserve Bank to start issuing bond notes.

Baroness Verma: If Zimbabwe clears its arrears to the International Financial Institutions, any future financing would need to be based on comprehensive reforms and a firm commitment to sound macroeconomic management. The UK shares concerns that the introduction of bond notes could be damaging to confidence in the Zimbabwean economy, if not managed appropriately by the Government of Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe: International Assistance

Lord Oates: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the signals that would be sent to the government of Zimbabwe were the IMF and other international financial institutions to resume financial assistance to Zimbabwe, in the light of the current activities of the Zimbabwe Republic Police and other elements of the security forces there.

Baroness Verma: Donors have consistently made clear that resumption of financial assistance to Zimbabwe from the international financial institutions would need to be based on the Government of Zimbabwe’s commitment to make significant process across a broad range of reforms, including rule of law and constitutional alignment. It is of course vital that the right signals are sent to both the government and the people of Zimbabwe.

Developing Countries: Education

Lord McConnell of Glenscorrodale: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they plan to become a founding donor of the Education Cannot Wait fund for education in emergencies at its launch at the World Humanitarian Summit, and how much they intend to donate in 2016.

Baroness Verma: The UK has played a leading role in the development of the Education Cannot Wait fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises, which was launched at the World Humanitarian Summit on 23rd May. The UK has committed to provide £30 million in support over two years to the new fund as a founding donor, which was announced by the International Development Secretary at the fund’s launch event at the World Humanitarian Summit.

Department for Culture, Media and Sport

BBC: Internet

Lord Lucas: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the reported decision by the BBC to discontinue the BBC Food website, and other services that digitally repurpose content that the BBC has already paid for, is in accordance with its vision of the future of the BBC.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe: Decisions in relation to the BBC's online content are a matter for the BBC which is editorially independent of the Government.

Exercise

Lord Pendry: To ask Her Majesty’s Government in what ways they are targeting the entire population to encourage them to take up physical activity, and not just those who are overweight or obese.

Lord Pendry: To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of research that shows that lack of physical activity is negatively affecting more people than obesity, whether they have a strategy on how to support grassroots attempts at getting citizens to take part in more and sustained physical activity.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe: Government is determined to tackle physical inactivity. Around one in two women and a third of men in England may be damaging their health through a lack of physical activity. Ministers across government continue to work together to identify opportunities to get people active in a range of ways including active travel, health initiatives, planning and sport. In December 2015 Government published ‘Sporting Future: A New Strategy for an Active Nation’ - the first comprehensive government strategy for sport for 13 years – it sets out a new vision for a successful and active sporting nation. It has a strong focus on reaching inactive people and helping them to get moving in ways that suit them. Sport England's new strategy ‘Towards an Active Nation’, published on 19 May, states that tackling inactivity is a major priority for the organisation, it is tripling its current investment to over £250 million over 4 years, making it the largest single national investor in tackling inactivity.

Department for Work and Pensions

Personal Independence Payment: Appeals

Baroness Thomas of Winchester: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether, in the light of cuts in the number of welfare rights officers and to legal aid, they will provide resources to Citizens Advice Bureaux, local mental health charities and disability organisations to provide support for disabled people who go to tribunal when appealing against their Personal Independence Payment assessment.

Baroness Altmann: Tribunal proceedings are designed to be straightforward and accessible to all. The tribunal panel is trained and possess special expertise to ensure that all issues which have a bearing on the outcome of an appeal are investigated irrespective of whether or not they have been raised by the parties. DWP does not provide funding for this purpose. Individual local authorities may provide funding for these types of organisations but it would be a matter for the individual local authority to decide.

Department for Energy and Climate Change

Radioactive Waste

Lord Judd: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what progress they are making in identifying the most geologically suitable site for the future storage of nuclear waste.

Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth: The 2014 Implementing Geological Disposal White Paper set out three initial actions for Government and the developer (Radioactive Waste Management) to provide greater clarity on issues such as geology, development impacts and community representation. In April 2016 Radioactive Waste Management (RWM) published National Geological Screening Guidance which sets out how they intend to bring together, present and provide authoritative and existing information on UK geology relevant to the long term safety of a Geological Disposal Facility (GDF). RWM are applying this Guidance and have started gathering existing information on the UK’s geology which will help communities across England, Wales and Northern Ireland better understand their potential suitability to host a GDF. It will not, however, determine if a particular location, region or area can definitively host a GDF. Formal engagement between the developer and potential host communities will start in 2017 once the Government and RWM have delivered the initial actions, including the national geological screening outputs. Good progress is being made in the short term with a clear long term goal of delivering safe and secure final disposal of all our radioactive waste.

Radioactive Waste

Lord Judd: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what progress they are making in identifying the most appropriate means for the short- and medium-term storage of lethal and hazardous nuclear waste.

Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth: The UK Government has clear policies for the safe and secure short and long–term management of radioactive waste. The UK Government published a Policy Statement for the management of Low Level Waste (LLW) in 2007. In accordance with it an updated UK Nuclear Industry LLW Strategy was published by DECC in February 2016. It requires the application of the waste management hierarchy. It means disposal of LLW should be a last resort and waste avoidance, recycling and reuse of waste should be considered first. This will preserve capacity in the UK’s national LLW repository in West Cumbria so it can continue to dispose of the highest priority LLW only. The policy for higher activity waste is contained in the Implementing Geological Disposal White Paper published by DECC in 2014. The policy is that higher activity waste from nuclear facilities will be held in safe and secure interim storage facilities on nuclear licensed sites until a Geological Disposal Facility (GDF) is available for final disposal.

Cabinet Office

Electoral Register

Lord Chadlington: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to ensure that women in safe houses and refuges who need to keep their address anonymous are not prevented from voting.

Lord Bridges of Headley: Electors who need to keep their name and address anonymous are able to submit an application for anonymous registration. As part of their application, electors must satisfy the Electoral Registration Officer that their safety, or that of people they live with, would be at risk if the register contained their name and address. For this purpose electors must provide either a court order or an attestation by a “qualifying officer”, which includes senior police officers and chief social workers. The evidential threshold for applications for anonymous electoral registration is to ensure that it is available only to those whose personal safety would genuinely be at risk if their details appeared on the electoral register, rather than for the purpose of gaining additional privacy.

Government Departments: Procurement

Lord Hylton: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will ensure that central government procurement policies are used whenever possible to create jobs with training for people from disadvantaged areas or with individual handicaps.

Lord Bridges of Headley: The Public Contracts Regulations (2015) allow Contracting Authorities to reserve contracts for sheltered workshops and suppliers whose main aim is the social and professional integration of disabled or disadvantaged persons, or provide for such contracts to be performed in the context of sheltered employment programmes.